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“They headed in the direction of the Capitol because we were able to see that from where we were standing. We were only three blocks away,” parent Angela Bell said.

Since the government is still shut down, the students were able to meet with Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell at the Capitol Building two hours before the incident.

After the tour of the building, they were off to the Newseum, a museum dedicated to all things media.

“Like I was saying with another parent, we were talking about the irony of being in the news museum, and actually watching news unfold, so it was pretty amazing,” Bell said.

Here at home, parents were unaware of what was going on until they were contacted by loved ones on the trip.

“I got word from my wife that there was news of a shooting. I knew that they had already moved out of the Capitol area so I turned the news on and they wanted detail from me about what was on the news,” Craig Donnachie said.

Donnachie’s wife and daughter were on the trip. His youngest daughter, Claudia, was happy her sister and mom will be back home Friday evening, “I was just happy that they were safe and away from it and all.”